40 hours review of Borderlands 3 - All done on Linux !
274After about 40 hours of playing Borderlands 3 with the same character, I finally completed it, with only 4 or 5 side quests to go. I played it completely on Linux, and I thought I'd give my review of the game itself, as well as how it runs on Linux
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The machine
I used my desktop PC, running Manjaro GNOME. It rocks a Ryzen 5 2600 CPU, an RTX 2060, 16Gb of RAM, and the OS runs from an M.2 SSD. The game itself was installed on a standard 7200RPM HDD,.
How good is the story?
You begin on Pandora (the titular planet of the series), as a new Crimson Raider recruit, and are greeted with Claptrap. This time around, though, you get thrown directly in the action, with your first boss fight (a very simple one) coming in after 15 minutes or so.
This trend continues throughout the whole story, which should take about 15 to 20 hours to complete if you skip all the side missions.
The tale Borderlands 3 tales is pretty classic, and the culmination of the various story arcs that Borderlands 1 and 2 started.
Borderlands 3 lets you explore outside of Pandora. It will bring you on a variety of different locations, from deserts, to mountain ranges, jungles, and metropolises, to finish on a planet covered with alien ruins.
Is the humor still relevant?
The Borderlands humor has always got me smirking more than really laughing. A few jokes and characters made me genuinely smile, and a few references really hit home for me, but I never really burst out of laughter either.
How is the gameplay?
Characters feel more mobile, more active, guns reload faster, enemies have a bit less health. The fact that you can vault over stuff and climb a lot better than before also adds some verticality.
You still have the Borderlands basics: you gain XP by killing enemies and completing missions, which you can use to level up, and unlock skill points. These can be spent in any of the 3 skill trees each character has, and they make a difference in how you play your character.
Each skill tree has a separate action skill, and the more you advance in that skill tree, the more modifiers you unlock to tweak it however you like.
Borderlands 3 is pretty generous with loot. It still has a few rarity levels, with white items being common ones, green being uncommon, blue being rare, purple for epic, and orange for legendary. Legendary items are still pretty easy to obtain during the first play through.
This loot you don't need or keep for another character can be stored in Sanctuary, now your main base. It contains a few quests, all the main characters you've encountered, as well as the various devices you'll need to sell your superfluous loot, expand your ammo or backpack storage, change your skin, or even get your hand on the loot you might have left behind during your various slaughters.
I have played a dozen of hours in multiplayer, and Borderlands 3 really shines there. Coopetition is the one I'd recommend, since everyone has their own loot, so no mad rush to scoop up every shiny drop, and enemies and quests are leveled so every player can contribute the same amount to the progression.
Does it have enough content?
It took me about 40 hours to beat the last boss and turn in the last quest, and I still have a few side quests to complete. Each map on each planet has its own set of side activities that will reward you with lore, trinkets, and experience points.
There is also True Vault Hunter mode, a more difficult version of the game, and if you want to farm some loot, you can activate Mayhem mode, which has itself three difficulty levels.
Once you've completed the main story, you also unlock Guardian Ranks, which are the same ad Badass Ranks in Borderlands 2.
How does it look?
Visually, the game is stunning. Textures are amazingly detailed, and the cel shading style makes them shine even more. Character models also are high quality.
The most amazing part of Borderlands 3 is the guns. And these gun models are simply nuts. Every gun you'll find will have nicely animated parts, from the reload animation, to firing, or melee attacking with it, they all scream "attention to detail".
How does it run?
On my machine, at 1440p, the game ran on high settings, and was able to maintain a constant 60fps, except when playing with three of my friends and when the shooting got crazy, then I saw drops in the 45fps.
How does it run on Linux?
It works just fine, but there are a bunch of configurations to set up. You'll need to install the Epic Games Launcher for now, which is an easy one-click install with Lutris, and then install the Microsoft Media Foundation through various scripts, as well as add another DLL and register it through Wine's regedit.
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